“He knew this was the country that gave him and his family a chance to succeed,” said his son, Hemdeep Patel of HKD Laboratories Canada. “Later on in life, as his health started to fail him, he always felt indebted to the health-care system for all the treatments that were available to him.”
Suresh—founder of Ujas Gemport Ltd., in Toronto—died in hospital last month after suffering a heart attack. His health had been in decline for several years from complications associated with diabetes, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure. He was 68 years old.
“He was a strong-willed individual, who had the drive and ambition to make things happen,” said Hemdeep. “He was never afraid of work and he worked well beyond Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. On many occasions, I accompanied him to clients’ offices, stores, and factories after hours and on weekends.”
Growing up in the coastal city of Cambay, India—a gemstone cutting and trading centre—Suresh and his two brothers learned the coloured stone trade from their father. In his late teens, Suresh moved to Mumbai where he developed his skills as a gemstone trader. In the late 1960s, he moved to Hong Kong with his wife, Sudha, and set up a gemstone business with clientele in Latin America, Europe, and North America. A few years later, Suresh entered the Canadian market and later emigrated, establishing new roots with his young family. Soon after, he created Ujas Gemport Ltd., a coloured stone wholesale supplier.
Bala Lodhia, of Lodhia Jewellers in Toronto, remembers meeting Suresh for the first time in 1972 through a cousin who was working in one of the factories he visited while in Toronto.
“My cousin said, ‘Here’s a gentleman who speaks the same language and is here without his family and would like to eat some Indian food,'” said Lodhia, recalling how eager his parents were to extend an invitation to their home. From there, a near four-decade long friendship began.
“He taught me how to play poker,” Lodhia said. “He was a smart poker player and had a good poker face. I’ve become quite a good player.
“I will miss chatting with him every day. We talked about everything and anything. He had a wonderful sense of humour. In any given situation, he would come up with a one-liner. He found something funny in anything and could make something serious more lighthearted. It’s a tough loss.”
Suresh is survived by his wife, Sudha, his sons, Hemdeep and Kamal, daughters-in-law, Binita and Darshna, and grandchildren, Anika, Sahil, and Thanisha.
“He was very soft spoken and kind-hearted and many of the relationships he developed with clients turned into long-lasting friendships,” Hemdeep said. “As a father and husband, he provided everything we could asked for. To Kamal and myself, he was a loving father who set a strong example of how to conduct oneself. He taught us self-respect and a sense of humanity toward others.”
